A surface-coated cutting tool having a coating formed on a base material has conventionally been used. Recently, various techniques have been proposed for enhancing the performance of the surface-coated cutting tool, such as a technique for improving the quality of the coating by changing the crystallographic texture of Al2O3. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-246664 (PTD 1) proposes a cutting tool including an α-Al2O3 layer having the (006) texture on a base material of a cemented carbide.
Moreover, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-335816 (PTD 2) proposes a cutting tool including an Al2O3 layer having a region in which α-Al2O3 crystal grains are mixed with κ-Al2O3 crystal grains on a base material of a cemented carbide.